Table of Contents:

Source: "An Editorial on the Court Reorganization Plan" (1937)
Author: Frank Gannett, publisher of Gannett Newspapers

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. Why does the author express concern about FDR's Supreme Court Proposal?
  2. What action is he asking each of the letter's recipients to take?

Source: "The Spirit of '37"
Author: Seibel, Richmond Times Dispatch

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. Why has the cartoonist portrayed the man in the judge's robes as unhappy?
  2. The drum is labeled "New Deal". What does that suggest about the identity of the drummer? Why is he calling to the judge to "fall in"?

Source: FDR's Message to Congress and the Judicial Branch Reorganization Plan (February 5, 1937)
Author: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. According to this passage, what reasons does President Roosevelt give for reorganizing the federal judiciary?
  2. What specific legislative proposal does FDR make in this passage?

Source: The Great Depression, p. ( date )
Author: Robert S. McElvaine, Professor of History

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. According to Professor McElvaine, FDR's reorganization proposal was "...in no sense unconstitutional (and) ...clearly within the power of Congress." Why then, did it meet with a "howl of outrage?"
Source: Trying to Change the Umpiring
Author: Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, February 10, 1937

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. What do the bats at the feet of the two men represent?
  2. Why is the "batter" shaking his fist at the "umpire"?

Source: Letter (February 21, 1937)
Author: A.N.D., Jr., White Plains, New York

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. The author of this letter requests the President to "please stop throwing pop-bottles at the umpire." What does he mean by this phrase?
  2. Review the short essay, which introduces the cartoon page of this feature. Why does baseball make an appropriate metaphor for this issue?
Source: Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, 528 (May 27, 1935).
Author: Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, writing for the Court

Scaffolding Questions:

  1. In his opinion for the court, Chief Justice Hughes writes:

    Extraordinary conditions may call for extraordinary remedies. But the argument necessarily stops short of an attempt to justify action which lies outside the sphere of constitutional authority. Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power.

    What does Justice Hughes imply by this comment?